Matt writes in to warn us all not to fly on June 29th and 30th if we can help it, because the 29th is when flight plans for all domestic flights have to switch over to the international standard. Matt adds that it’s just his personal opinion, so we’re not sure how worried we should really be (remember the fake-out of the Y2K bug?). But then again, we’re talking about airlines, so at the very least you should pack some extra energy bars if you’re traveling on the day of the switchover.
I just wanted to point something out that is not very publicized yet. On June 29th, the FAA will switch to a different filing method for flights in the USA. They are switching to what is called and “ICAO Flight Plan”, which is the international standard that the rest of the world uses. This is like going from standard to metric for the aviation world.
Because so many airlines and FAA computers are old and talk to so many agencies, there is a strong chance that something will go wrong. At the large airline I work at, some are calling it “D-Day”, since it is a cold-turkey switch. We are talking about a brand-new way for ALL airlines to file domestic flight plans, and they are all doing it for the first time on June 29th.
If you can avoid it, I would probably not fly June 29-30. Just my opinion, but this represents a pretty big switch for the nation’s air travel system and there is a chance that this could cause big headaches.
“Flight Plan Instructions: New Implementation Date – June 29, 2008″ [Federal Aviation Administration]
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I have a flight on 6/29 and on 6/30. Crap.
Don’t bank on fair compensation from the airlines for your troubles. Remember, these are the people with the bright idea of giving you a free ticket for poor customer service, then charge you $300+ dollars in fees when you use it.
@Canoehead: I feel bad already that EWR is your home airport.
Metric: because you can’t do math.
Y2K was not a “fake-out.” Thousands of programmers like my father spent four years rewriting, recompiling, debugging and re-installing software for various companies to make sure the problem got fixed before anything serious got screwed up. Just because they actually accomplished this goal (yea! free markets at work) doesn’t mean the problem never existed. Anyone who doesn’t think there was really a problem was absolutely not any sort of real programmer in the late 90s, because real programmers were busy working their butts off to fix it.
@humphrmi: Seriously folks. This is a modified paperwork requirement for traffic managers. Planes won’t fall out of the sky because of paperwork, nor will they sit idle on the tarmac. Once they’re in the air, the pilots know where they’re going, whether a traffic manager has filed the proper forms or not.
I seriously doubt this will be an issue at all.
@humphrmi: I was just having fun. I don’t really think planes will drop out of the sky. I’ll leave that kind of worrying to Chicken Little.
However, I never underestimate the impact bureaucratic procedures have on an already overwrought industry. Airlines can’t get it right even under normal condition so needless to say, I am glad I am not flying for a while.
Oh boy, ICAO flight plans!
Too bad they’re pretty much the same as the FAA ones that’re being filed right this second. There really isn’t that much different – - take a look at a Nav Canada flight plan some day, and you’ll get a feel for what’s going to change. Since a Canadian flight plan can be used to enter the US, and vice versa, I really don’t think it’ll be that big of a deal. Sure, some people might scratch their heads and say “hmmm” when they see certain fields that seem to be new to them, but I’m sure each company responsible for flying under the affected rules (I’m not sure which FAR sections are going to be affected, being from Canuckistan and all), has given their pilots a heads up.
Just a thought. Or maybe the entire system will come to a grinding halt as every single multi-thousand-hour commercially rated captain forgets how to file a flight plan. Maybe.
US Airways is particularly inept at IT-anything. I’m glad that I’ll be done with all my upcoming thousands of miles of travel by mid-June.
But seriously… this is not a y2k-bug-level thing.
Gack, the ICAO flight planning looks waaaay more complicated than the current FAA flight planning.
This is the current FAA flight plan:
[delta.jepptech.com]
This is an ICAO flight plan:
[delta.jepptech.com]
It’s mostly the same information on either one, but just represented in a different way.
WTF why do people always do bad shit on my birthday?
Last year they released that piece of shit iPhone, this year they’re making it impossible to fly.
WHY JEEBUS WHY?
@MissGayle: “Anyone who doesn’t think there was really a problem was absolutely not any sort of real programmer in the late 90s, because real programmers were busy working their butts off to fix it.”
Yes, there was a problem. No, it wasn’t anywhere near as large as some people would like to think.
A lot of people like myself and your father made a lot of money addressing the issue. In some cases, people like us made a lot of money without having to do very much.
Okay, in most cases.
Please, don’t make it out to be more than it was.
Oh sh*t.
@BigElectricCat:If anything, some IT departments and people were using Y2K as a means to convince management to get the old stuff out the door.
@Rusted: I saw that myself. Quite a few of my employer’s clients said “well, as long as you’re here doing this ERP customization and install, how much more would it cost for your team to stick around for a couple of weeks and do some Y2K remediation for us?”
Two points, from an airline dispatcher who files flight 40+ daily flight plans (electronically)…
1. While he change is going into effect on Sunday, June 29th, it actually will start on Saturday evening. ATC operates on UTC/GMT or “Zulu” time, and thus the changeover from the 28th to the 29th is also based on his. The difference between UTC and local time on the east coast of the USA is currently 4 hours, so the midnight UTC changeover from the 28th to the 29th is at 8pm eastern time, and you can figure the rest of the US time zones from there, 7pm central, etc.
2. It’s imporant to realize exactly what is changing. Here in the USA, when the dispatcher issues a dispatch release, the flight plan information is a part of that, and electronically goes from the airline’s computers to ATC’s computers. What’s changing is the format of this electronic message as it concerns domestic flights. Today’s format for domestic flight plan filings differ from the ICAO format and the airlines are reprograming their internal computers to use the ICAO format for all flights effective June 29th. The various airlines will be testing their work between now and then, and fixing any bugs they find.
Come that Saturday night, what you’ll probably see is that most (if not all) airlines have successfully made the changeover. If any problems do occur, they will probably be airline-specific. How will it affect one’s flight? Flight plan’s will have to be filed manually, and there may be a delay in doing so when the volume is considered.
It’s not the end of the world…